GLENDORA >> Amber Marinero scored three goals, including two in the second half, to lead the South Hills High School girls soccer team to a 4-2 victory over Glendora in the Palomares League opener on Thursday night at Citrus Stadium.

Glendora (5-7-1, 0-1) scored with four minutes left in the first half to tie the game at 2-2 going into halftime, but Marinero scored twice in the second half for South Hills (9-1-5, 1-0), while the defense held the Tartans scoreless to get the league-opening victory.

“The way our offense played was decent,” South Hills head coach Scott Mocabee said. “We were a little bit out of sync, but anytime you score four goals in a game you can’t be disappointed with the way your offense played.”

Marinero scored the winning goal in the 63rd minute, dribbling to her left from the top of the box before firing a shot past the goalkeeper for a 3-2 lead. The senior forward completed the hat trick in the 76th minute, providing the Huskies with an insurance goal by knocking in a header straight off a corner kick.

“There were some great individual efforts on the goals tonight,” Mocabee said. “I thought Amber’s effort tonight to get those goals for us was huge, and she should be proud of the way she played.”

Both teams scored in the first three minutes of the game, with Glendora’s Whitney Wood scoring off a corner kick in the first minute. After the entering kick, the ball bounced around in the box, but the Huskies couldn’t clear it before Wood got to the ball and put it in the back of the net.

Less than two minutes later, South Hills fired right back with a goal by Marinero, who was the first to get to a free ball inside the box. Her shot hit off the left arm of the goalkeeper and slowly rolled passed the line to tie the game.

“Obviously it’s frustrating to give up a goal in the opening minute when it looked like just a bit of a lack of focus,” Mocabee said, “but I was proud of the way the team responded to get it right back in the next minute to get us back on even terms.”

Madison Warren scored the Huskies’ second goal on a shot from 20 yards away from goal from in between the hash marks. The shot went straight over the goalkeeper’s hands to give South Hills a 2-1 lead in the 24th minute.

The Tartans tied the game in the 37th minute when Mackinley Gregus stole the ball on the South Hills half and then passed to Cassidy Overstreet on the right side. Overstreet only had to beat the goalkeeper but didn’t wait to fire a shot from just outside the right side of the box that went into the net untouched.

“It’s the same as last year (in the Palomares League), every game is going to be a battle,” Mocabee said. “If you don’t show up to play, you’re going to drop a game. Now we have two tough games that we need to prepare for next week.”

Glendora had the first chance to take the lead in the second half with a shot from inside the box by Alexis Rushlow that went just over the crossbar in the 47th minute.

South Hills also had chances just a minute later with two corner kicks, getting a shot on goal from the second.

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